20111109 Ybor City & Tampa, FL

On November 9, 2013, the Camera Club of Brevard ran a bus trip from Melbourne to Ybor City, the cigar-making section of Tampa. We spent eight hours there just wandering around and shooting whatever we found interesting. It was a fun-filled day. I hope you enjoy the gallery.

088 A TECO (Tampa Electric COmpany) trolley. This photo was taken in full sunlight under a blue sky, so the bright marigold trolley just overflows with color. And yeah, I boosted it a little to create a vibrant, sunny image. It’s all fun. Oh, and the trolley is at the end of its line; that’s why the tracks don’t extend behind it.

092 Melbourne doesn’t have tall buildings. Neither does Ybor City. But downtown Tampa does, and there is an inexpensive (especially for seniors) trolley that runs from Ybor City to downtown Tampa. So some of us paid our few pesos and off we went to explore the big city. And I love the wooden interior of this car. (It looks old, but it's not.)

134 A view of contrasts. These buildings were built probably many decades apart. At first glance, they look like just a plain brick building and a plain glass and concrete (or similar looking substance) building. Yet each building has ornamentation not immediately noticed. The modern building looks like a plain obelisk, yet the architect added his flourish by cutting away the right corner a few stories from the top and installing a diamond-shaped group of windows in a recess that runs down the remainder of the building. The brick building’s architect specified two rows of different, redder bricks for the window arches, topped by a course of bricks that are set so their ends show and extend outward beyond the plain brick facade. The top four courses are stepped outward and are of redder bricks, and the fourth course down from the stepped courses is also redder. Both of these redder touches match the color of the window arches. To me, these details turn plain old and new buildings into interesting old and new buildings.

162 And my favorite. I laid the camera on the ground in a V-shaped notch in the PNC building and shot straight up. From four o’clock to eight o’clock is the natural view. From eight o’clock to four o’clock are reflected views. And from 11:30 to 12:30 are reflections of reflections. Now we’re having real fun!

289 Ybor City is a unique community with eclectic shops and eclectic people. Here “Samantha” is trying to get people to pay him for allowing them to take a photo of him in his snazzy outfit with box purse. Since he is out in public and has no expectation of privacy, no one has to pay him to take his photo. But people do pay him. I’m told he said he needed the money for his sex-change operation. I would love to see the expression on the passing motorcyclist's face.

365 After dark the bus took us to the Platt Street bridge in Tampa, from which we took nighttime photos of downtown Tampa. The bridges in the photo are bathed in colored lights that change color over time. The two green bridges in the foreground are the Lee Roy Selmon (Crosstown) Expressway (FL 618), a toll road. The blue and purple bridge beyond the expressway is the Brorein St. drawbridge.

365-7 Here is another shot of the above skyline. In this shot I’ve zoomed out to show more reflections on the water, and I’ve composited the expressway bridge to show the three colors of lights that alternately bath the bridge.